Editorial: Unbottling the bitter truth

Plastic toxicity in packaged bottled water should ring alarm bells in India, which saw second-fastest growth rate in mineral water segment

A new research study conducted in the United States on plastic toxicity in packaged bottled water should ring alarm bells in India as well. It has been found that a litre of bottled water contains about 2.4 lakh toxic plastic pieces on average, 10-100 times higher than the earlier estimates that largely focused on plastics of larger sizes. The study, conducted by a research team led by Columbia University’s scientists and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, should be a wake-up call for India as the country recorded the second-fastest growth rate after South Korea in the mineral water segment in a three-year period 2018-21. According to a United Nations report, India was 14th in the world in terms of the volume of bottled water consumed in 2021. The American researchers tested three popular US bottled water brands and found between 1.1 lakh and 3.7 lakh particles in each litre; 90% of the plastics were nanoplastics and the rest were microplastics. Nanoplastics are tiny, undetectable particles, thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair, and are regarded by scientists as potentially more hazardous than microplastics as they are far greater in number and can enter the lungs, heart, brain and the bloodstream. They can also cause metabolic disorders, cellular imbalance and intestinal inflammation. The world produces more than 450 million tonnes of plastics each year, much of which eventually ends up in landfills. It would take about 1,000 years for a plastic bottle to decompose and in the meantime, plastic pollutes its surrounding environment.

Apart from serious questions over the quality of packaged water sold in India, the type of plastics used for manufacturing the bottles — usually, polyethylene terephthalate — is also under scrutiny now. A robust regulatory system is a must to ensure that the bottled water industry maintains high standards of safety. At the same time, there is a need to encourage the use of alternatives such as bottles made of glass or stainless steel, cardboard cartons and even aluminium cans. The emphasis should be on the recyclability of the containers. Plastic has become one of the most pressing environmental issues today. Plastic pollution adversely affects our ecosystems and is also linked to air pollution. The health of humans and also of the entire planet is at stake. When a plastic water bottle comes in contact with heat, it releases microplastics in the water, which further make their way into the human body. These microplastics cause various problems including hormone imbalance and infertility. India generates over 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste every year and the per capita plastic waste generation has almost doubled over the last five years. The domestic bottled mineral water market grew 27% per year during 2018-21, while South Korea’s grew at 28%.

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